Letter: Where the Buck Stops

“The buck stops here” is a rousing sentiment that, when put into practice, often turns into a smarmy attempt to define “here” as “somewhere else.” It’s with considerable gratitude and pleasure that we report an example of genuine buck-stopping in the Upper Valley.

Recently, returning at night from Logan Airport by Dartmouth Coach, we arrived at Lebanon only to find our valet-parked car among the missing. The bus driver, understandably, had to deliver the remaining passengers to Hanover, but promised to return to Lebanon to help us in another hour. At that point, Jeff Salls stuck his head out of a doorway. Jeff works the night shift getting buses ready to roll the next morning, and while he, too, was unable to interrupt his work for long, he promptly called for help. In less than 20 minutes, Peter Stanley, the general manager of Dartmouth Coach, drove up, apologized for our inconvenience, and after quickly deciding that locating and extricating our car from an off-site parking lot would be time poorly spent in the dark and cold, simply drove us home. The following morning, he returned to take us back to the Lebanon terminal where our car was now waiting for us.

It says a great deal about a business when an employee who doesn’t normally have to deal with the public refuses to allow customers to be seriously inconvenienced and, what’s more, feels comfortable with calling the manager to sort things out; the same goes for a manager who shows up in person to face any possible music and rectify the situation, rather than saying “Tell them to call a cab and we’ll reimburse them.” That was a good night’s work, gents. Thanks!